Robert Mueller hands out new tax and bank fraud charges to Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Update!

Courtesy of Bloomberg:  

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his onetime deputy, Rick Gates, were indicted on tax and bank fraud charges as U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller mounted a fresh attack to strengthen his legal pressure against the men. Mueller used a new 32-count indictment in Alexandria, Virginia, to raise the legal stakes against the duo, who were initially indicted on Oct. 27 in Washington on charges of laundering millions of dollars and failing to register as foreign agents for their political consulting work over a decade in Ukraine.

The second indictment complicates the legal defense for both men and appears to signal that plea negotiations have been fruitless. Gates had been weighing a guilty plea, according to several reports. Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, has charged a total of 19 people and picked up the tempo of his public actions in recent days. 

“Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work,” the new indictment said. “From approximately 2006 through the present, Manafort and Gates engaged in a scheme to hide income from United States authorities, while enjoying the use of the money.” 

The men are accused of filing false tax returns in each year from 2010 to 2014, and of conspiring to defraud three banks of more than $22 million through loans secured by Manafort’s properties. At one bank, a conspirator helped in the fraud, the indictment said. It also charged that as their political consulting income dwindled in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, Manafort and Gates defrauded banks to allow Manafort “to have the benefits of liquid income without paying taxes on it.”

Apparently part of the evidence used against these two idiots is an email of Manafort asking Gates to convert a fraudulent document from a word file to a pdf.

Y'all I'm dying, Manafort created an incriminating paper trail because he needed someone to help him convert a Word doc to PDF. pic.twitter.com/CTE4oV7zj0

— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) February 22, 2018

Pair of real geniuses here.

Speaking of geniuses this kind of makes me wonder just HOW MUCH incriminating evidence that Mueller has compiled to use in this investigation.

I mean he started out with indictments against Manafort and Gates accusing them of conspiracy, and when they failed to cooperate he simply indicts them on tax and bank fraud charges like it's nothing.

One has to wonder what else he has in the chamber if Manafort continues to hold out on him?

(You can read these new indictments here.)

Update: Well that was quick.

Gates has now agreed to plead guilty.

Courtesy of NBC News:

Former campaign aide Rick Gates has agreed to plead guilty, becoming the third associate of President Donald Trump to make a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, a source familiar with the proceedings told NBC News. 

Gates, who was indicted with former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort in October on conspiracy and other charges related to their lobbying work in Ukraine, is expected to appear in federal court in Washington on Friday to enter the plea. 

The development comes a day after Mueller filed a new 32-count indictment against Gates and Manafort, hitting them with new charges of tax and bank fraud. It also follows a guilty plea by a Russia-linked lawyer who admitted he lied to investigators about his contacts with Gates.

And the dominoes just keep right on falling.

I think that once Mueller convinces Manafort to flip, that it is game over.

Update 2: Damn! Manafort just doubled down on his innocence.

NEW / Paul Manafort says Rick Gates did not have the “strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence” —> pic.twitter.com/2N3sDIDaqp

— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) February 23, 2018

Okay somebody has definitely been offered a presidential pardon.

Trump White House finally accepts that Russian interference in the 2016 election is real. Now what?

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

A day after it was announced that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for interfering in the 2016 presidential election, the president’s national security adviser said that it Russia meddling was abundantly clear. 

“As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain, whereas in the past it was difficult to attribute for a couple of reasons,” National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. 

He added, “Whereas in the past, it was difficult to attribute for a couple of reasons. First, technically it was difficult. But then also you didn’t want to divulge your intelligence capabilities. Now that this is in the arena of a law enforcement investigation, it’s going to be very apparent to everyone.”

Before this of course Trump and his lackey's kept refusing to completely accept the findings of the intelligence agencies.

Now that it is laid out in those indictments made public yesterday it appears they have no real choice.

Of course Trump's response to this was to totally misread (Or more likely mishear.)  the indictments as vindicating him of collusion.

Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018

As I pointed out yesterday that is not true.

Mr. Trump, you told the Russians you'd be running for president in Moscow in November 2013—and indeed it was that declaration that led to the anti-U.S. campaign in early 2014. Cohen had made clear by mid-2013 you were running; you confirmed it to the Agalarovs and Yulya Alferova. https://t.co/UyjT9QMqbE

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) February 16, 2018

But that has not stopped a number of Trump flunkies from appearing on cable news shows to make that same ridiculous claim.

And since this indictment did not include allegations of collusion, Fox News has decided to take a victory lap:

Boom. The Democratic Trump-Russia collusion narrative is dead.

Now if you have been paying attention to this Mueller investigation, as I have, you may have noticed that Mueller seems to like to allow the Trump folks to get way out on a creaky limb right before he takes an axe to it.

So I would not be at all surprised if nothing noteworthy happens this weekend, allowing the Right Wing spin machine to work its magic, and that sometime next week Mueller drops the other giant loafer right on their pointy little heads.

Rod Rosenstein announces indictments against 13 Russians and 3 Russian companies for interfering in 2016 election.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Thirteen Russian nationals have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of interfering in the 2016 presidential election — including supporting Donald Trump's campaign and "disparaging" Hillary Clinton, special counsel Robert Mueller announced Friday. 

The indictments — part of Mueller's ongoing investigation — are the first tied directly to Russian meddling in the race for the White House. 

"Some defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the indictment says.

Some of those charged also "posted derogatory information" about candidates in the Republican primaries, including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and supporting Bernie Sanders and Trump. By the time of the general election, the Russians' efforts included "supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton," the indictment says. 

At a press conference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the defendants allegedly "conducted what they called 'Information Warfare' against the United States, with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general."

Damn!

Rosenstein also stated that there is no allegation in this indictment that these activities changed the outcome of the election.

The key phrase here is "in THIS indictment."

However some on the Right are taking this to mean that Trump is free and clear, while I know nothing could be further from the truth.

Trump himself jumped on the fact that the Russians launched their campaign in 2014.

Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018

Of course the problem with that is that Trump started talking about his presidential run way back in 2013.

Mr. Trump, you told the Russians you'd be running for president in Moscow in November 2013—and indeed it was that declaration that led to the anti-U.S. campaign in early 2014. Cohen had made clear by mid-2013 you were running; you confirmed it to the Agalarovs and Yulya Alferova. https://t.co/UyjT9QMqbE

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) February 16, 2018

I think through this indictment is the first time that we are learning that the Russians actually had boots on the ground here in American during this time period, and were not simply conducting an online election interference campaign.

The time period in which they really ramped things up by the way, the summer of 2016, also coincides with Trump asking Russia to release Hillary's emails, and with his son meeting with Russian operatives in Trump Tower.

And while the Russian operation focused mainly on the easily manipulated deplorables in order to help Trump win, they also used other methods of damaging Hillary Clinton's chances.

Courtesy of Vox:

Friday afternoon, the Justice Department released an indictment that’s part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election led by special counsel Robert Mueller. 

The indictment outlines the lengths Russia went to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton — including by supporting Bernie Sanders (and, later, Jill Stein). 

The Russian operations on social media were meant to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton and other candidates, including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. And they were supposed to support Sanders and Trump. 

“Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them),” they were directed, according to the indictment.

So once again I have to remind people that the ONLY way you know the Russians did not manipulate you in some way is if you voted for Hillary Clinton, because that was the ONE person they were desperate to see defeated.

And look, they were successful.

The Russians wanted to see America destroyed, just like ISIS and just like Al Qaeda, the only difference is that they came up with the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

This man. 

Five people indicted for crimes they committed during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. One indictment is for first degree murder.

James Alex Fields, charged with murdering Heather Heyer.

Courtesy of the Daily Progress:  

A grand jury has indicted five men on charges stemming from the failed Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. 

On Monday evening, the grand jury indicted James Alex Fields Jr. on all 10 charges he faces in the car attack that killed Heather Heyer, including first-degree murder.

Fields faces a penalty of 20 years to life in prison on the murder charge. In a preliminary hearing Thursday, prosecutors upgraded his second-degree murder charge to first-degree. 

General District Judge Robert H. Downer Jr., also certified charges against Alex Ramos, Jacob Goodwin and Richard Preston on Monday. Another judge had already certified a charge against Daniel Borden. 

Borden, Ramos and Goodwin were all indicted by a grand jury on charges stemming from the Market Street Garage beating of DeAndre Harris, of Suffolk. 

Preston was indicted on a charge of firing a weapon near a school.

You may remember that this is the rally of which Donald Trump claimed that there were "good people" on both sides.

Well it appears that these "good people" may be headed to prison. 

You know it continues to irritate me that the conservatives were essentially calling for a lynch mob to go after the undocumented immigrant who accidentally killed Kate Stenle with a gun, but seem completely undisturbed by a guy who killed Heather Heyer after purposefully driving his car into a crowd of people.

Employees at Fox News are embarrassed and humiliated by the cable network's coverage of the Robert Mueller investigation.

Courtesy of CNN:

Some employees at Fox News were left embarrassed and humiliated by their network's coverage of the latest revelations in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling, according to conversations CNN had with several individuals placed throughout the network. 

"I'm watching now and screaming," one Fox News personality said in a text message to CNN as the person watched their network's coverage. "I want to quit." 

"It is another blow to journalists at Fox who come in every day wanting to cover the news in a fair and objective way," one senior Fox News employee told CNN of their outlet's coverage, adding that there were "many eye rolls" in the newsroom over how the news was covered. 

The person said, "Fox feels like an extension of the Trump White House." 

The employees spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. A Fox News spokesperson told CNN the network covered the breaking news accurately and fairly across both news and opinion programming.

The article goes on to  reveal that though Fox did cover the recent indictments they did not focus on them, and instead spent a lot of time on the NFL protests, North Korea, and Trump's tax plan, while also airing pieces that questioned Muller's credibility. 

My friend emailed me last night and insists that at least one of these nameless folks in the piece above is most likely Shep Smith, who must be constantly cursing under his breath all day long about now.

Fortunately for conservatives in "the bubble" this is coming from CNN so Donald Trump will just dismiss it as "fake news."